Women's Notebook: Syracuse Sends Shockwaves, Upsets Uconn

Your team loses by 44 points. Your job? In a couple of days, get it ready to play No. 2 in the country, the defending national champion Connecticut Huskies.

Then explain how you beat them.

Syracuse coach Marianna Freeman did all that. In a season that's had plenty of surprises, this is the biggest so far. Tuesday, the Orangewomen beat UConn 62-59, ending the Huskies' 40-game Big East winning streak, which counts league tourney games. Syracuse had never beaten a ranked team before.

``I guess you could say this is the biggest victory in the history of SU women's basketball,'' Freeman said. ``They seemed to begin to play not to lose, and that gave us more encouragement and we built on it.''

At the Big Four ACC Classic in Greensboro, N.C., Saturday night, the Orangewomen were dismantled 84-40 by a Duke team that used its bench liberally. Afterward, one Syracuse player sat sobbing outside the locker room.

The night before though, Syracuse had a much better showing in losing to N.C. State 79-70. It was that team, with its good pressure and solid rebounding, that ambushed the visiting Huskies, who shot a season-low 42.1 percent.

``If there's ever been a game I was shocked to see the result of, that was it,'' Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. ``I saw it on the (Headline News) ticker, and I had to watch about four times to make sure I saw it right.

``Syracuse is a good team when they attack, and we took them out of their style. When you have a big loss like that, it's gut-check time.''

Syracuse also had guard Kristyn Cook back after she sat out the Duke game due to injury. She made two free throws for the winning points vs. UConn.

UConn's last Big East loss was at Seton Hall on Jan. 5, 1994. The Huskies play at Tennessee on CBS at 3 p.m. Saturday.

TIGER TALE. On the same night as Syracuse's upset, unranked Clemson stopped Virginia's 61-game home winning streak. The scores were almost identical: Syracuse won 62-59, Clemson 63-59.

This game wasn't nearly the upset that Syracuse's was. The surprising thing about it was it happened in University Hall.

Clemson's Jim Davis said his team's youth may have helped in that regard - the kids didn't realize you're not supposed to have the temerity to beat Virginia at home.

Cavs coach Debbie Ryan will never accept excuses for losses, but the Cavs did have two good ones: they had just come off a West Coast road trip and, more importantly, starting wing Monick Foote was out with an ankle sprain.

``She gives them a little different attack with her great perimeter shooting,'' Davis said of Foote. ``She'll make all the difference in the world in their basketball team.''

Still, nothing should take away from Clemson's terrific play. When folks talk about the country's better programs, they don't always think of Clemson. They should. In the program's 21 seasons, it's had at least 20 victories 15 times. Davis is in his ninth season, and has had 20 wins every year but one - 1992-93, when Clemson was 19-11.

INJURY UPDATE. Old Dominion's Sarah Willyerd, who bruised her back and left the game vs. Richmond on Tuesday, is expected to be able to play tonight against Texas, one the Monarchs' two remaining non-conference games. The other is at Tennessee on Jan. 11. ...

North Carolina had a scary moment when star Tracy Reid went down screaming against Georgetown last Friday. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but still bad - she suffered a severely sprained ankle and is still hobbling. The Heels hope to get her back by Jan. 13 vs. Clemson.

QUIET COACH. A viral infection recently left North Carolina State coach Kay Yow with a severe case of laryngitis. Her doctor told her she could not even mouth words for a week.

So in the Wolfpack's two games at the Big Four ACC Classic last week, Yow communicated with body language and a ``magic board,'' the things kids use with the magnetic pens and metal filings.

Yow walked back and forth like usual, but would stop frequently to scrawl things on the board and show her assistant coaches, who would yell out to players. The team also had flash cards.

It was a little like Mel Brooks ' ``Silent Movie.'' But funnier. The 'Pack won both games, but didn't do Yow the favor of running away with either. So there she was, mouth tightly shut, pacing, gesturing wildly and using the magic board.

One good thing for Yow, though, is she has a little genius of a point guard in Jennifer Howard, who always knows what's going on. And Howard can yell, ``Baseline, y'all!'' with the same rural Carolina twang as her coach.

Howard, who made the all-Classic team, set an ACC record with nine 3-pointers against Syracuse on Friday. Prompting one clever reporter to write: ``Jennifer Howard turned in a 3-point shooting performance that left coach Kay Yow speechless.''

Yow's voice is back now. She says: ``It was a little frustrating for us all. It was like charades.''